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"Do you cherish that of God within you, that his power growing in you may rule your life? Do you seek to follow Jesus who shows us the Father and teaches us the Way?" (Christian Faith & Practice, London Yearly Meeting, 1960)

July 08, 2011

Luke 6.39-49

He also offered them a parable: "Can one blind man be guide to another? Will not they both fall into a ditch?

"A pupil is not superior to his teacher, but everyone, when his training is complete, will reach his teacher's level."

4 Comments:

The first part is so obvious and seemingly innocuous... How can anyone imagine how it would sound, heard for the first time... to anyone who's been depending on an established religious tradition (Jewish in his day, Christian etc in ours) for his spiritual navigation?

And the second line means?--

"You've been following these people all your life? And you can't see what God is doing? If they know what's going on, why don't you? If they haven't led you to know God... what good are they?

Goes well with traditional Quaker anti-clericism; but what about the notion of "Corporate Spirituality"? Twenty blind people can discern twenty times as well as one?

... diary rambling ... saw this text earlier, felt nothing, walked away all day ... during the day, I saw dozens of ways I’m blind ... blind to the subtle feelings of clients when I'm too busy looking at the law ... blind to the things in plain sight when I failed to notice my diesel fuel gauge on empty and had to have my Volkswagen diesel primed ... about reaching the teacher’s level, if the teacher is always as student and is ever learning, then so shall I be ...

Ah, corporate spirituality. I suppose twenty blind people could develop echo location. And cover their ears when they don’t want to hear. Are there corporate groups who have all their senses trained? – “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb 5:14). I might like to join a group which has all senses trained to discern the good. But, when it comes to having all senses trained to discern – evil – maybe I’d rather not see, hear, feel, balance, touch, taste, smell ... there must be a church where I can focus on the pastries on Sunday morning ...

Twenty blind people could grope in a group, and if one of them found a ditch, the others might pull him back. But this is not learning to open their eyes.

"Sometimes the Light is all shining on me;other times I can barely see." That seems to be my condition.

And sometimes I catch myself hiding my head under a bushel (or wherever) because nothing is quite clear, except restlessness and a reluctance to move forward on anything I've hoped to do. The Light, in the traditional Quaker concept, ought to be what I need to see why I'm feeling this way.

Needing to remember to open my eyes when it seems so much easier to close them?